The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Palearctic; in Britain and Ireland some 500 winter (Lack, 1986).
Regional Distribution
Cornwall: passage migrant (70-100 in autumn) and winter visitor in small numbers
throughout Cornwall, but rarely more than five at any site; five-ten birds winter at scattered sites, but only the Lynher/Tamar complex consistently holds five wintering birds (and is thus Nationally significant). Isles of Scilly: usually one-three birds scattered on passage, but a count of 18 in August 2003.
Habitat & Ecology
Typically solitary, favours freshwater streams and lake edges; also brackish streams at head of tidal creeks.
Threats
None significant.
Conservation
The main sites are SSSI. Listed (long list) as a globally threatened/declining species
(BSGR, 1995).
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.